Clayton Kershaw on Saturday night was trying to become the first Dodgers pitcher to win 12 in a row since Burt Hooton did it in 1975. But Kershaw, who is rapidly gaining support for not only winning the Cy Young Award but the National League MVP award, showed he’s human.

Kershaw gave up a two-run home run to Ryan Braun in the fourth inning and a home run to Carlos Gomez in the sixth and that was enough for the Milwaukee Brewers to emerge with a 3-2 victory over the Dodgers before 50,849 at Dodger Stadium.

Kershaw pitched a complete game. He allowed three runs on five hits. He struck out 11 and walked none while throwing 97 pitches. His last loss before Saturday was May 28 against Cincinnati at Dodger Stadium.

Yovani Gallardo (8-6) picked up the victory. He threw eight innings and gave up just one run on six hits. He struck out three and walked one on 96 pitches.

Francisco Rodriguez pitched the ninth for his 38th save, but not before giving up a leadoff home run to Matt Kemp - his 15th.

The first-place Dodgers (70-55) lost a game in the standings and now lead San Francisco by 4 1/2 games in the NL West. They have lost 11 of their past 15 games to Milwaukee at Dodger Stadium. The Dodgers are 1-4 against the Brewers this season as they recently lost two of three at Milwaukee.

The first-place Brewers (69-55) picked up a game in the standings and now lead the St. Louis Cardinals by three games in the NL Central.

“Yeah, really good again today, I thought better than the other day in Milwaukee,” Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said of Kershaw. “Milwaukee was a battle for him. Tonight it seemed cleaner, it seemed easier.”

Kershaw was bummed, yet complimentary.

“Yeah, it’s a tough game,” he said. “It comes down to, I got out-pitched. Yovani pitched better than I did, we lost the game. It was a good game, a clean game. Both guys were pitching all right. I just made more mistakes than he did and it showed up on the scoreboard.”

Kershaw was told what Mattingly said about him pitching better than he did in Milwaukee. He agreed.

“Yeah, it’s funny,” he said. “I felt like I pitched so much better than I did in Milwaukee. But, obviously, the scoreboard said differently. So the stuff was definitely better and the command was better. But that’s just the way it goes sometimes.

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“The scoreboard doesn’t reflect how you feel and I guess I got lucky in Milwaukee, and paying for it here.”

Milwaukee went nine up and nine down over the first three innings, but Gomez broke that string with a leadoff double to left off in the fourth inning. Kershaw induced Jonathan Lucroy to ground out to shortstop, which brought Braun to the plate.

With fans chanting “cheater, cheater” as Braun was dueling with Kershaw, Braun got in the last laugh when he hit an opposite-field home run - his 15th - that just got over the fence in right for a 2-0 lead.

“He’s the best pitcher in baseball and he’s been on an incredibly great run,” Braun said of Kershaw, whose ERA rose all the way up to 1.86 from 1.78. “It’s extremely difficult to beat him, and it hasn’t happened much this year.

“So for us to do that is an impressive accomplishment and something we’re proud of. To split those two games he started is encouraging for us.”

The Dodgers got one of those runs back in the bottom of the inning when Carl Crawford hit an infield single off Gallardo, stole his 17th base and came home on a single to center by Justin Turner, who was thrown out at second when the throw from the outfield was cut off.

The Brewers got that run back in the top of the sixth, however, when Gomez led off with a long home run deep into the left-field bullpen. It was Gomez’s 19th of the season.

“He was mixing, he has that little slider, cutter and slipping a breaking ball in,” Turner said of Gallardo. “He had pretty good command, throwing it just off the plate when he wanted to and throwing it for a strike when he needed to get ahead.”

“Yo was just outstanding,” Roenicke said. “He had great command and an outstanding fastball. He pitched off the fastball the whole game while mixing in his slider and curveball. He really dominated. That’s a good club, and you can’t mess around and make mistakes against them.”

The teams will complete their series Sunday when Dan Haren (10-9) takes on Wily Peralta (14-7) at 1:10 p.m.